SUSPECT IN KIDNAP-STABBING ASKS JUSTICES TO REVIEW CASE

The suspect in the kidnapping of Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman's son and the stabbing of an FBI agent has asked the Utah Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling allowing him to stand trial as an adult.
Nicholas Hans Byrd's defense lawyer, Walter Bugden, wants the justices to review a Utah Court of Appeals ruling earlier this summer upholding the constitutionality of laws that allowed Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom to file charges against Byrd in 3rd District Court rather than juvenile court.

The suspect in the kidnapping of Utah industrialist Jon Huntsman's son and the stabbing of an FBI agent has asked the Utah Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling allowing him to stand trial as an adult.

Nicholas Hans Byrd's defense lawyer, Walter Bugden, wants the justices to review a Utah Court of Appeals ruling earlier this summer upholding the constitutionality of laws that allowed Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom to file charges against Byrd in 3rd District Court rather than juvenile court.Bugden wants the case returned to juvenile court because his client has no prior criminal record and was under 18 at the time of the kidnapping.

Yocom has argued the charges against Byrd should remain in the district court because of their seriousness and because the juvenile system would lose jurisdiction of the defendant when be turns 21.

James Huntsman was abducted Dec. 8, 1987, while his father was away on business. After being held overnight in a motel for $1 million ransom, the victim was rescued unharmed by FBI agents who staked out a telephone booth they believed the kidnappers would use.

During Byrd's arrest, FBI agent Grant Alan Jacobsen was stabbed in the chest. Jacobsen has since recovered and has accepted a security job with Huntsman Chemical Corp.

Charges against a second teenager were dropped after the youth admitted he helped plan the abduction but never believed it would be carried out.